Praying for the Future of UBC

Years ago I had the good pleasure to hear author David Macauley speak about his work. Macauley has written several books which he illustrates with marvelous pen-and-ink drawings. Many of his books deal with architecture, featuring subjects such as castles, mosques, pyramids and other interesting topics. My favorite of his works is Cathedral, a detailed history of the construction of a Gothic cathedral.

Cathedral is the fascinating account of the century-long process of the construction of a church in the fictitious French town of Chutreaux. Macauley takes us back to 1252 and introduces us to all kinds of craftspeople, as well as the tools they employed in the building. In the narration of the book we are given insights into how gargoyles were constructed and then placed, how the huge windows were made and then put in place, and how the mammoth bells were hoisted to their resting places in the towers atop the cathedral. But of all the things I was fascinated by in Macauley’s telling, I was most amazed by the reality that those people who began the cathedral knew that they wouldn’t live to see it completed. After all, it took a hundred years to build such a structure.

The people’s commitment of faith stuck me in such a profound way. Why, most of the folks who worked on the cathedral knew full well that they wouldn’t live to benefit from it. Nevertheless, they pushed on, doing their very best in the times and at the jobs given to them. My hunch is that we could learn a lot about building the church from these folks. Of course, I am not referring to the physical mastery of their work, but rather their spiritual devotion to building something important for God.

My hope and prayer is that our church might have the same kind of spirit about it -- that we might invest our gifts and our lives in the endeavor of building Christ’s church in such a way that our work benefits our life together and those who follow after us. I pray that we will embrace the work we share in such a manner that God’s grace is seen inside and out.